Call for research in monitoring societal change and environmental goals

With this call Swedish EPA and the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, SwAM are seeking to fund research aimed at improving the ability to analyze the interconnection between different trends and societal developments, and the environmental goals. This includes to document that these developments are taking place and to what extent, as well as to measure the environmental impact or environmental benefit of these developments and trends. In order for this to be possible, ways of measuring the societal change and their environmental effects should be identified and enable monitoring over time.

Swedish EPA invites organizations, individual researchers or research groups to submit applications for projects in the order of SEK 2-6 million (including overhead costs) for a maximum of three years. Several projects can be granted. The Swedish EPA allocates a total of SEK 25 million for this call. We encourage researchers from different disciplines to work together. The deadline for applications is 15th of September 2017.

Challenges in environmental management

In the latest in-depth evaluationof the Swedish environmental objectives, the Swedish EPA has identified several societal changes that are deemed to have the potential to contribute to the achievement of the environmental quality objectives. Steering towards this development is crucial.

Three areas could be especially highlighted. A developed circular economy can help to break the coupling between economic growth and environmental impact. The Swedish EPA also believes that the links between a developed sharing economy and the environmental impact need to be further clarified. The impact of Swedish imports, exports and Swedish foreign investment on environment and health in other countries should be better integrated into the policy of the Swedish EPA. In order for this to be possible, better methods are required to follow transboundary material flows and risks for carbon leakage.

The overall goal of Swedish environmental policy is to hand over to the next generation a society in which the major environmental problems in Sweden have been solved, without increasing environmental and health problems outside Sweden’s borders. This generational goal is guiding the Swedish environmental policy.

The generational goal is specified in seven indents, the last four of which show some societal developments that are important for environmental management:

- Material cycles are resource-efficient and as far as possible free from dangerous substances.

- Natural resources are managed sustainably.

- The share of renewable energy increases and the use of energy is efficient, with minimal impact on the environment.

- Patterns of consumption of goods and services cause the least possible problems for the environment and human health.

The societal developments exemplified above, in turn, affect the consumption patterns with complex feedback in relation to economic and technological development and society's instruments. Among other things, there is the possibility of the so-called “Rebound” effect can reduce efficiency of the policy instruments, i.e, efficiency increase reduces product or service costs, which can in turn ramp up consumption (due to reduced prices) and thus the environmental impact.

A large number of indicators have already been developed by several international organizations such as OECD, World Bank, and EEA. These should be examined and assessed based on their usefulness in answering the questions within this call.

The Swedish EPA and SWaM expect to benefit from the results of the research in developing analysis of links between societal development and environmental goals in various forms to the government, and also to better demonstrate how societal changes / changes due to technological development, changes in the world and political decisions contribute to or counteract an (ecologically) sustainable development.

Priorities:

The Swedish EPA and SWaM seek research projects that can contribute to increased knowledge of appropriate monitoring measures or indicators that enable analysis of complex effectual relationships, between societal changes and society's governance in environmental policy on one hand and, how these changes affect the potential for achieving environmental goals on the other hand. Below are examples of the issues that applications can address:

- It has been emphasized that development towards a circular economy is important in increasing resource efficiency and supporting work towards achieving environmental goals. How can an increased impact of circular economy in society be measured and what parameters can reflect the environmental benefit of this development?

- The digitisation of society creates conditions for new products and business models which in turn creates better grounds for sharing economy. It is interesting to find measures that illustrate the extent to which this development takes place and also what measures can highlight the environmental benefits.

- A developed bioeconomy could be important for transformation to a low carbon production in many industries by replacing fossil inputs with bio-based materials. Fossil fuels can also be replaced in the transport sector and in heat production, and coal can be stored using long-term wood products. At the same time, increased production of bio-based products affects the amount of coal stored in the forest and land, which makes the bioeconomic climate benefit a complex issue. There are also potential conflicts of interest in bioeconomics between climate goals and other environmental goals, such as biodiversity. What follow-up measures should be developed to follow the evolution of bioeconomics but also reflect to what extent bio-based materials and fuels lead to an actual net reduction of climate emissions in Sweden and abroad? How can the effects of bioeconomics on other environmental objectives be monitored?

- The generational goal indicates that the major environmental problems should be resolved without causing increased environmental and health problems outside Sweden's borders. At sector level, it is interesting to be able to follow industry's development and transformation as a result of climate policy, technological development and increased trade with the other countries. What are the relevant measures to describe the industry's change and its impact on greenhouse gas emissions and resource efficiency in Sweden and the rest of the world? Example of the questions are e.g. what are the existing data, and what follow-up measures are best suited for carbon leakage analysis due to relocation of industries to other countries or net change of greenhouse gas emissions in Sweden and the rest of the world due to import and export in industry?

- Political, technical and economic changes in society lead to changed consumption patterns. This, in turn, has a major impact on environmental impact and resource utilization even in other countries. Follow-up measures are needed that allow the analysis of the effectual relations between the major events in society and the resulting consumption patterns, that is to say, how public and household consumption is changing over time. An interesting question is how the so-called "rebound" effects can be measured.

- In addition to the above mentioned examples, applications can include other societal changes. Issues related to different synergies between environmental goals and other social goals as a result of certain societal changes can also be relevant.

Who can apply?

The main applicant must hold a PhD and conduct research at universities, colleges, research institutes, or government agencies carrying out research as part of its mandate. “Research institute” refers to organizations that have research as their sole or principal part of their mandate. The main applicant should be affiliated with a Swedish organization with a Swedish corporate identity number (“organisationsnummer”).